THE CITY

Winter 2015
know what is right and wrong. Of course many of them do. I am
not saying that atheists cannot make moral decisions. Of course they
can. I am not saying that atheists cannot formulate a good ethical
system. They can do that.
I am saying that only if God exists is there a secure rational basis
for objective right and wrong, for moral accountability, and for
moral obligations. 1 God’s holy and perfectly morally good nature
constitutes the objective standard of right and wrong and is the
source of moral values; and God’s commands to human beings
constitute the source of moral obligation. In the Christian faith, the
essence of morality is the two-fold commandment that we (1) love
the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength, and (2)
love our neighbor as ourselves.
But if there is no God, morality is a human invention or a byproduct
of biological and cultural evolution, and is accordingly
entirely subjective and relativistic. Morals are either expressions
of personal taste or else devices to help us adapt and thrive as
organisms. But just so that you know that I am not making all of
this up out of whole cloth, let me share with you quotations from
two contemporary atheist thinkers. Max Horkheimer, a twentieth
century German philosopher from the so-called Frankfort school
of philosophy, wrote, “to salvage an unconditioned meaning [that
is, one that stands out as an unqualified good] without God is a
futile undertaking.” 2 And Kai Nielsen, the famous Canadian atheist
philosopher, at the end of an essay called “Why Should I Be Moral?,”
somewhat ruefully admits that:
We have not been able to show that reason requires the moral
point of view, or that all really rational persons should not
be individual egoists or classical amoralists. Reason doesn’t
decide here. The picture I have painted for you is not a
pleasant one. Reflection on it depresses me…Pure practical
reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not take
you to morality. 3
1
The argumentation of this section is largely borrowed from William Lane Craig, “The
Indispensability of Theological Meta-Ethical Foundations for Morality.”
2
Cited in Richard Wolin, “Juergen Habermas and Post-Secular Societies,” The Chronicle of
Higher Education (September 29, 2005), B17.
3
Kai Nielsen, “Why Should I Be Moral?,” American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 21 (1984): 90.
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